Chengdu-Chongqing dialect

Chengdu-Chongqing Dialect is spoken within central Chongqing, Chengdu and surrounding provinces. Chengdu-Chongqing dialect is a branch of Sichuan dialect.{{Cite journal|last1=Chen|first1=Shunting|last2=van de Weijer|first2=Jeroen|date=2018-09-01|title=Consonant–vowel interaction in Sichuan Chinese: An element-based analysis|url=https://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S0024384117304242|journal=Lingua|language=en|volume=212|pages=1–9|doi=10.1016/j.lingua.2018.05.001|s2cid=171472267 |issn=0024-3841}}

Academically, Chongqing dialects are spoken in main urban area of Chongqing, with one-fifth population of the Chongqing city.{{Cite book|last=Shen|first=Hong|title=重庆方言与城市文化|publisher=重庆大学出版社|year=2010|pages=26–32|language=Chinese}}

In a broad sense, Chongqing dialect is spoken with all districts of Chongqing City. Eg: Tongliang District, Hechuan District, Fuling District, Zhanjiang District, etc. Chongqing dialect its considered as a branch of Southwestern Mandarin.{{Cite book|last=Shiyu|first=Zhai|title=《重庆方言志》|publisher=西南师范大学出版社|year=1996|language=Chinese}}

The Chengdu-Chongqing dialect is mutually intelligible with dialects spoken in its satellite districts such Sichuan. But, as all public schools and most broadcast communication in urban Chongqing use Mandarin exclusively, nearly all speakers of the dialect are good at Chongqing dialect and Mandarin. Owing to migration within China, traditional Chongqing dialect is getting similar to Mandarin, many residents of the city cannot speak the local dialect but can usually understand it, and get fluent to it after a few months or years in the area.

With Chinese government declared movement to Chongqing during the World War II, Chongqing became the Provisional capital of the republic of China,{{Cite web|last=Yaojian|first=Yang|date=29 April 2015|title=回望1937：国民政府迁都重庆|url=http://dangshi.people.com.cn/n/2015/0429/c85037-26922638.html|url-status=live|website=人民网|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20160422094107/http://dangshi.people.com.cn/n/2015/0429/c85037-26922638.html |archive-date=2016-04-22 }} when migration boost the population of the city. Chongqing dialect mixes the merits of various local dialects, with wits and humor, gains popularity with its users.

Chengdu-Chongqing dialect has four phonemic tones: dark level tone, light level tone, rising tone and departing tone. These tones are of same pitch as Sichuan dialects (Minjiang, Renfu, Yajin).{{Cite journal|last=Zhen|first=Shangling|date=March 1960|title=《四川方言音系》|journal=四川大学学报（社会科学版）}}

The Chengdu-Chongqing dialect in most regions doesn't have tongue retroflex (tʂ group initials), except for Bazhong district and Panxi area (except for Panzhihua), where the consonants of the tongue curling are similar but not the same as Mandarin. Chongqing dialect with 45 districts using has 20 initials, 5 initials do not exist: {{IPA|[ʈʂ]}}, {{IPA|[ʈʂʰ]}}, {{IPA|[ʂ]}}, {{IPA|[ʐ~ɻ]}}, {{IPA|[ȵ]}}; Chengdu dialect with 77 districts using has 21 initials, 4 initials do not exist: {{IPA|[ʈʂ]}}, {{IPA|[ʈʂʰ]}}, {{IPA|[ʂ]}}, {{IPA|[ʐ~ɻ]}}.{{Cite news|last=甄尚灵等|first=|date=1960|title=《四川方言音系》|work=四川大学学报（社会科学版）}}

The following is the initial consonant inventory of Chengdu-Chongqing dialect:

In particular, the consonants of Chengdu are comparable but not identical to those in Mandarin. See the inventories below:

A final, the remainder of syllable after the initial, consists of an optional medial glide, a vowel and an optional final consonants. There are 42 types of finals in Sichuan dialect; four Sichuanese finals do not exist in Beijing: {{IPA|[ɛ]}}, {{IPA|[iai]}}, {{IPA|[uɛ]}}, and {{IPA|[yo]}}. On the other hand, three Beijing finals do not exist in Sichuanese: {{IPA|[ɤ]}}, {{IPA|[iŋ]}}, and {{IPA|[əŋ]}}. Chengdu dialect with 62 districts using has 36 finals, Chongqing dialect with 37 districts using it has 37 finals.

The following is the inventory of Sichuanese finals, transcribed in the International Phonetic Alphabet:

The tones of the Chongqing-Chengdu dialect are very similar, but not the same as that of Sichuanese. About one third of Sichuan dialects have a special entering tone, with a relatively independent set of finals, e.g.: {{IPA|[iæ]}}, {{IPA|[uæ]}}, {{IPA|[ʊ]}}, {{IPA|[ɘ]}}, {{IPA|[ɐ]}}, {{IPA|[iɐ]}}, {{IPA|[uɐ]}}, {{IPA|[ɔ]}}, {{IPA|[yʊ]}}, {{IPA|[yɵ]}}, etc. These vowels keep the throat tight, ensuring the muscles of the larynx and oral cavity stay tense during pronunciation, so that the entire syllable exhibits a rough and tight state.{{Cite book|last=Jiang|first=Yu|title=四川官话雅棉小片入声归阴平研究|publisher=汕头大学|date=May 2004}}

The vowels in Chengdu are given below:

The following table shows the tense vowels of Chengdu-Chongqing dialect, and a comparison with other Sichuanese dialects:{{Cite book|last=Jiang|first=Yu|title=《四川官话雅棉小片入声归阴平研究|publisher=汕头大学|date=May 2004}}

Affected by Mandarin for a long time, literary and colloquial readings appear in the Chongqing-Chengdu dialect. Colloquial readings are usually the inherent reading style from the ancient Sichuan dialect, mainly appearing in high-frequency everyday communication; literary readings are close to modern Mandarin, normally appearing in written language. The literary and colloquial readings have been developing in the recent decades. However, affected by the promotion of Mandarin Chinese by the Chinese government, literary readings are becoming dominant, and some pronunciations have the tendency to disappear.Rongchang Cui, Lingli Song. 普通话对成都话语音的影响，语文建设. 1999 Literary and colloquial readings of Chinese characters in Chengdu are shown below.{{Cite journal|last=Shangling|first=Zhen|date=1958|title=成都语音的初步研究|journal=四川大学学报（哲学社会科学版）}} Note: the table is only based on 《成都语音的初步研究》in 1958, the changes of Chengdu dialect in recent years are not considered:

As a branch of Sichuanese, Chengdu-Chongqing dialect is mainly composed of three parts: ancient Ba-Shu Chinese, vocabulary brought by immigrants in Ming and Qing Dynasties, and lingua franca of ancient China.

Chengdu-Chongqing dialect is a branch of Sichuan dialect, which is very different compared with other Chinese. Yunnan dialect, which is considered very similar to Sichuan dialect, only shares 58.3% identical words.{{Cite book|last1=Cui|first1=Rongchang|url=https://www.worldcat.org/oclc/38066742|title=Sichuan fang yan yu Ba Shu wen hua|last2=崔荣昌.|date=1996|publisher=Sichuan da xue chu ban she|isbn=7-5614-1296-7|edition=Di 1 ban|location=Chengdu|oclc=38066742}} Sichuan dialect is also influenced by Xiang Chinese and Gan Chinese, the vocabulary of Sichuan dialect is very different from northern Mandarin, with only 47.8% similar vocabulary.

Recently, many loanwords have been introduced to Chengdu and Chongqing from standard Mandarin and English. Meanwhile, new words are developing Chengdu and Chongqing, which then spread at a dramatic speed through China.{{Cite journal|last=Chen|first=Hong|date=February 2008|title=《重庆言子儿的文化透视》|journal=重庆大学学报(社会科学版)}}{{Cite journal|last=Quanwen Yang|first=Keying Lu|date=May 2005|title=《当代成都言词新例释——兼论其造词心理与民间文化意蕴》|journal=西华师范大学学报（哲学社会科学版}} For example, “雄起”(xióng qǐ) (meaning to "cheer up"), is a typical Chengdu-Chongqing word that gets popular in China, equivalent to "加油" (jiāyóu) in standard Mandarin.

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